ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Aaron Samuels is the author of Yarmulkes & Fitted caps, released by Write Bloody Publishing. He is the recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem, Asylum Arts, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. Samuels is a founding member of the Dark Noise Collective and ranked 3rd place at the Individual World Poetry Slam. He currently lives in Los Angeles where he serves as Co-Founder and COO of Blavity Inc.
Mario
Sometimes I want to end racism,
but then I play Mario instead.
My friends say Aaron,
why do you even still have a Super Nintendo?
Nobody cares about racism anymore.
When my dad was growing up,
he says they didn’t have things like Mario.
He says that he and his friends used to
fight racism all day with just a joystick
and one button. It didn’t even look the same
just a big circle, and a bunch of squares and dots.
He says, Aaron, you don’t know how lucky you have it
to be able to fight in three dimensions.
He says that video games have always been
three dimensional, but we have just been ignoring
most of it, it’s simpler that way.
Honestly, I don’t even really like Mario.
But when I sit on my couch,
sometimes I feel like I don’t have a choice
at this point all of my friends and my dad
just expect me to play. I have this dream
where I find the real Mario and I ask him
what it must have been like to be the first Italian
video game superhero. He says, Aaron,
just because I am the first that you know of
doesn’t mean I am the first. Video games
have existed since the beginning of time.
The dream ends differently each time.
Sometimes, I push Mario off a bottomless cliff.
Sometimes I become a monster and eat him.
Sometimes I eat poison mushrooms
until I don’t know who I am anymore —
until I think that I can be big enough
to change the world.
Sometimes, I am his brother
and we fight and fight and fight
and I hate him. I hate him so much.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
